Yesterday in the midst of hanging around the hospital with my son, I kept remembering that it was both my oldest grandkid's 13th birthday and the tenth anniversary of my mother's death. This morning my prosthetic memory showed me adorable baby pictures but also reminded me that on the day after my mother died, I went to a park near her house and saw juvenile anhingas stretching their wings. Birds are good therapy, then and now, but I can't get away to Florida at the moment so I've been outside watching the ordinary birds that visit our yard.
I've been hearing brown thrashers calling but finally caught a glimpse of a handsome one today. And for the first time I saw male cowbirds performing their mating display, puffing up their chests and making that peculiar gurgling sound to attract the attention of a female that seemed profoundly unimpressed. Cardinals, woodpeckers, mourning doves, towhees, finches, sparrows, chickadees, titmice...is there anything more relaxing than sitting in the quiet morning sun while birds flit here and there? Just what I needed after the week I've endured.
A few Sundays ago while I was driving to church a red-tailed hawk slammed into my windshield with a sound as loud as a gunshot. I was so startled I nearly drove off the road. I checked my windshield for cracks and saw only a gooey smear but no other sign of the hawk. I can't imagine that it could have survived such a collision, which really upset me. I love hawks even though I know they often eat smaller birds.
Anyone who pays attention knows that nature is not always a warm and cuddly place; the juvenile bird stretching its wings today may be a smear on a windshield tomorrow, and the cowbird mating display that amuses me today may result in eggs laid in other birds' nests so that the fledgling cowbirds can destroy the other chicks. Life and death are partners in the grand dance, but as they swirl there's time to celebrate a whole world of beauty.
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| Juvenile anhinga |
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| Towhee |
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| Male cowbirds vying for the attention of a female. |
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| Brown thrasher |
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| Downy woodpecker |
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| Chickadee |
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| Tulip poplar, blossoming |
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| Mourning dove |
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